January 2012

Johnson Club of China receives the Henry P. Renard ’54, MBA ’55 Regional Club of the Year Award

By Maria Minsker '13

The Johnson Club of China, and Geoffrey Lim, MBA '00, as its president, was honored with the Henry P. Renard ’54, MBA ’55 Regional Alumni Club of the Year Award.

As the first president of the Johnson Club of China, Geoffrey Lim, MBA '00, director of CLSA Capital Partners, has helped the club expand and become a key networking zone for Johnson alumni in Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. Under Lim's leadership, the club has hosted numerous events, including presentations by Johnson faculty and a variety of social gatherings, earning recognition as this year's Henry P. Renard, '54, MBA '55 Regional Club of the Year Award.

According to Lim, much of the club's success stems from his collaboration with Beijing Co-President Rachel Gong, MBA '99, and Hong Kong Co-President Sean Alexander, MBA '01. The three took on these leadership roles, Lim explained, to experience the rewards of seeing friends reconnect for the first time since being in Ithaca. "Many personal and career changes take place after graduation, especially given the pace of fast-moving megacities like Beijing, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. It's wonderful to reunite people and play a role in helping them connect," Gong said. "It's also incredible to see current students interact with alums in China and successfully get job offers a few months later," Alexander added.

To bring alumni together, the club hosts about three or four events per year. The key to hosting successful events, Lim said, is maintaining constant contact with alumni and ensuring that their contact information and data is kept up to date, which can be a challenge. "We've been testing a Johnson Club of China Facebook site for several months now and will officially launch it soon," said Lim. The Facebook site will enable people outside of China to access information about the club. "For China, we are now considering a few alternatives to Facebook, since it is unfortunately banned in China," Lim says.

Lim, Gong, and Alexander hope that in the future, they'll be able to organize and host more large-scale, business-focused events, like Cornell's upcoming Asia Alumni Leadership Conference in Hong Kong this March. "Planning more activities and interactions with Johnson professors traveling through Hong Kong is also something we'd like to see happen," said Alexander.

As the recipient of the Henry P. Renard '54, MBA '55 Regional Club of the Year Award on behalf of the Johnson Club of China, Lim said he is flattered but owes the victory to the hard work of the people who have helped him. "Because Johnson Club of China covers three major cities—Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai — whatever our little accomplishments are, they are truly a result of collaborative efforts by a few core alumni in China. Those few incredibly committed alumni include Sean Alexander, Rachel Gong, Julia Xu, Sam Van Hobreek, Karin Chu and Ariana Yang," Lim said. "I was very surprised to hear about the award, but I very much appreciate the recognition."

Maria Minsker ’13 is an intern in Marketing and Communications at Johnson.